Part One: Introduction INTRODUCTION 2 | C h a p t e r 1 1. PROJECT OVERVIEW It was 52 years ago the people of Maine created the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, in 1966. Four years later, the Waterway joined the National Wild and Scenic River System. Today, “the Allagash” remains a singular national treasure—a 92-mile river and lake system winding northward through a working spruce-fir, northern-hardwood forest. The Allagash Wilderness Waterway Foundation and Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands (BPL) are collaborating to understand the condition of cultural sites and objects associated with the Waterway. Concern for these resources prompted the heritage resource assessment in Part Two of this report, which contains recommendations for future management. The identified heritage resources offer pathways for personal connections with the Waterway. An interpretive plan composes Part Three. The plan proposes ways to communicate with identified audiences using a core message held within Allagash lands and waters, as well as information about enjoying and protecting Waterway resources. It proposes a communication network to foster transformative visitor experiences. The key parts of the plan are goals, themes, and delivery strategies. PROJECT STUDY AREA The geographic focus for the Storied Lands & Waters project is the watershed drained by the Allagash River in 1840. Allagash waters played a pivotal role in the history of Maine’s logging industry. The waters delivered logs to northern mills of all kinds within the St. John River basin, which drains to the Bay of Fundy at St. John, New Brunswick. In the adjacent Penobscot basin, waters flowing to Maine’s Penobscot Bay delivered logs as far south as Bangor. Understanding these two watersheds is essential in considering the stories of the Allagash where, in 1841, lumbermen made big changes. They constructed dams to direct water from the southern lakes and ponds in the Allagash system into the Penobscot River. This allowed them to drive white pine cut around Chamberlain, Telos, and Allagash lakes south to Bangor, rather than following the natural flow north to the St. John River. The drainages where loggers cut trees, and the watercourses along which they moved logs, are part of the history of the Allagash. The watershed concept aids understanding of natural systems, too. The flow of water is essential in the life of Allagash plants and animals, including humans. Furthermore, water enables human enjoyment of the Waterway through recreation and appreciation. C h a p t e r 1 | 3 INTRODUCTION Figure 1. Heritage resource study area and Waterway One-Mile Zone (2017, produced by James W. Sewall Company). 4 | C h a p t e r 1 PROJECT OVERVIEW When used in this document, the term Allagash watershed (see Terminology, page 9) refers to its 1840 configuration. The plan for interpretation, Part Three, deals with this 948,000–acre watershed over time (Figure 96). Historic and cultural resources follow patterns derived from the interaction of humans with the watercourse and the surrounding land. Thus, BPL collaborates with other landowners in the area to manage historic and cultural resources in ways that complement Waterway management objectives (BPL, 2012, p. 150). The heritage assessment includes known resources in State ownership and on private forestland within 1 mile of the Allagash watercourse, which are subject to the statute that created the Waterway. The State of Maine property includes Public Reserved Lands, and a few Inland Fisheries and Wildlife properties. Timberland management companies control most private land. To provide context for evaluating heritage resources, the Part Two study area (Figure 1) is larger than the 1-mile area of the Waterway. One example: the boarding house and office built for lumberman Édouard Lacroix at Clayton Lake (which continue to be occupied) are similar to ones built for him at the Waterway’s Churchill Depot. The study area is mostly circumscribed by ridgelines that directed surface waters to the Allagash River prior to dam construction, i.e. the 1840 watershed. However, the watershed north of West Twin Brook is excluded from the resource study and, at Telos dam, the Waterway and study area extend 1 mile outside the historical watershed, along Webster Stream. There are 940,900 acres in the heritage resource study area (7,100 acres fewer than in the 1840 Allagash watershed considered for interpretation; see Part Three). METHODOLOGY The Allagash Wilderness Waterway Foundation initiated the historic and cultural resource assessment and interpretive plan for the Allagash, in keeping with its mission. I, Bruce Jacobson, led the project as a consultant to the Foundation. A cadre of professionals and Waterway enthusiasts, including Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands staff, aided the effort. I prepared two reference lists for Storied Lands & Waters. The one included herein presents published and unpublished documents and websites cited in the body of this report. The other is an annotated bibliography listing sources I encountered while preparing the resource assessment and interpretive plan. While far from comprehensive, it and other background material is available to assist in interpretive media development or future research. For educators, sample Waterway lesson plans supplement this report. C h a p t e r 1 | 5 INTRODUCTION Resource Assessment I relied on existing documentation and conversations with people familiar with the Waterway to identify potential historic and cultural resources, and to state their condition. In July 2016, I began reviewing documents about the Waterway, which totaled 2,500 electronic documents plus paper files in the Augusta offices of Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands (BPL) 525 documents at libraries, archives, and historical societies, and on the internet. Additional Bureau files, which I did not review, are stored in the Churchill Depot Waterway Headquarters and BPL’s Ashland and Greenville offices. The Waterway superintendent and chief ranger supplied relevant documentation in those locations. I visited the following locations to peruse documents or view collections. Abbe Museum (Bar Harbor) Maine Historic Preservation Acadian Archives acadienne Commission (Augusta) (Fort Kent) Maine State Archives (Augusta) Allagash Historical Society Maine State Museum (Augusta) (Allagash) Maine Historical Society (Portland) Ashland Logging Museum Mark and Emily Turner Memorial (Ashland) Library (Presque Isle) Ashland Library and Historical Patten Lumbermen’s Museum Society (Ashland) (Patten) Bangor Public Library (Bangor) Penobscot Marine Museum Boston Athenaeum (Boston, MA) (Searsport) Jessup Memorial Library St. Francis Historical Society (Bar Harbor) (St. Francis) It was easy to assemble a list of individuals with vast knowledge about places and resources associated with the Waterway: people are passionate about the Allagash. Some represented organizations with official responsibilities connected to the resources of the Waterway, such as BPL staff, adjacent landowners and land managers, archaeologists, and museum curators. Others had intimate knowledge gained through repeated visits, one individual having made 56 trips down the Waterway. I interacted with more than 50 individuals for the resource assessment (see Acknowledgments) and formally documented conversations with half. Discussions covered the existence, condition, and significance of historical and cultural resources of the Allagash. I contacted representatives of the Wabanaki nations—the Aroostook Band of Micmacs, Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Passamaquoddy–Pleasant Point Reservation, Passamaquoddy Tribe of Maine, and Penobscot Indian Nation—to identify any resources 6 | C h a p t e r 1 PROJECT OVERVIEW with special meaning to Native people and to include a Native perspective in planned interpretation. (As is customary, information regarding any significant Native American resources is held in confidence if requested by the tribes.) Twenty-five knowledgeable individuals, identified by the Foundation and BPL, reviewed a preliminary draft of the assessment to identify missing resources and update condition statements. I then assembled and facilitated a group of interdisciplinary resource professionals to discuss significance and treatment. Participating in the workshop were: Richard Barringer, Cindy Bastey, Thomas Desjardin, Paul Johnson, Sheila McDonald, David Putnam, and Arthur Spiess. Meeting on March 17, 2017, the Allagash Wilderness Waterway Advisory Council began review of the penultimate draft of the heritage assessment. An assessment draft was broadly distributed in May 2017 (on Amazon.com), which incorporated review input from Council members and others. Further comment by Advisory Council and Allagash Wilderness Waterway Foundation members, Waterway visitors, and Bureau staff changed 70% of the draft pages in Part Two: The result is this 2018 final report. Interpretive Planning Historic and cultural resources are but one aspect of what constitutes the Allagash. The Waterway is composed, too, of plants, animals, water, soil, night sky, quiet, geologic formations, natural processes, and other natural resources. A second undertaking of the Storied Lands & Waters project was to plan an interpretive program that will communicate the meanings inherent in natural and heritage Allagash resources to targeted audiences. A National Park Service description of comprehensive interpretive planning reflects several other common planning models and approaches, including the